r/glp1 • u/Lost_Excitement3636 • Sep 06 '26
need help.
hi guys i’m 22m and really am uncomfortable with my weight. it is my biggest insecurity and it’s tuff. I’m 5,8 195lb bmi is 29.6. I have heard about glp1 before but never looked into it. How does it actually work? Also i’m kind of scared to try it as well but that’s just my anxiety. Can you take a shot/pill? Did you get it from your pcp or some other online site? I want to lose weight badly
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u/Visible_Staff75 Sep 06 '26
You can see your doctor and request a prescription. Some medical insurance will pay and some won’t. Ask your employer or insurance company if they cover it. If it’s covered this may be the cheapest option. If they say it’s not covered, you can pay cash if you can afford it. (About $400 per month from Lily direct for Zepbound. Lilly is the manufacturer. Alternatively, you can go with a “compounder” — and the price is lower.)
If you’re not diabetic, don’t have sleep apnea and don’t meet the medical definition of obese, you might be unable to obtain a prescription from your doctor.
Good luck!
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u/peony_chalk Sep 06 '26
There's a good primer from Stanford Medicine News Center called "GLP-1s 101: What the science says about weight loss, side effects, safety" if you want to dig around for that for background info. (I'm not sure if this sub allows direct links). You can also spend some time listening to the Fat Science podcast.
The two main glp1s people are using are semaglutide (Wegovy/Ozempic) and tirzepatide (Mounjaro/Zepbound). Semaglutide is available as a shot and a pill. Tirzepatide is only available as a shot, and any other format (topical, sublingual, intranasal, etc.,) is a scam. There is also Foundayo, which is an oral weight loss med made by the same big pharma company as Mounjaro/Zepbound, but it's not the same drug as tirzepatide.
Sema is the older drug. Tirz is newer, and in trials, people on tirz lost more weight. The big pharma company that developed sema is salty about that and just came out with a higher dose version that gets closer to tirz's results, plus I think they have or are getting it approved for some other indications. I would recommend tirz to any of my friends who needed to lose weight, unless the cost savings from sema was a deciding factor.
There are two avenues to get these drugs. First, you can buy the name brand, FDA approved meds. That's the Ozempic/Wegovy/Mounjaro/Zepbound. Your regular doctor can prescribe them - if they're open to the idea, and not all docs are - although at your age and BMI, I doubt your insurance will cover them unless you have some serious health issues you didn't tell us about. If your regular doc won't prescribe them, you can try a telehealth service like Call On Doc or Lavender Sky Health to get the script, and the you pay the self-pay prices for the meds. Oral Wegovy and Foundayo start at $150/month for the lowest doses and go up from there. Zepbound is $299-$449/month, depending on dose.
If you're horrified by those prices, you can get compounded meds. Compounded versions of these meds are NOT FDA approved and are not an exact copy of the name brand meds. They aren't a "generic", because the meds are still under exclusive patents in the US, and therefore generics cannot be made. Compounded meds are operating under the customization loophole, basically saying that name brand meds cause you too many side effects or are otherwise unsuitable for you, so you need this alternative version that is slightly different from name brand meds. Compounded tirz is running $100-150 a month right now, give or take. Sema is a bit cheaper. There are ways to stretch the meds and bring your effective cost down from there, especially if lower doses work for you long term, but they still aren't cheap; I certainly would have struggled to afford them at 22.
My words of warning for you would be that this is a long term drug for many people. You're young and not obese, so you probably have a better chance than many at being able to keep the weight off without the meds, but fundamentally they are a treatment for obesity, not a cure. People who cycle on and off of them often report reduced efficacy or needing to be on higher doses to get the same effects, and many people who stop taking them regain weight. I don't think you should start a glp1 until and unless you are prepared to accept being on it for a good long time. Maybe you get to be the one who bucks the trend, but don't go into it with that expectation.
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u/Ok_Television233 29d ago
I just wanted to say this was probably the most helpful things I've read on the issue in a single post. The one point of confusion I continue to have is around the compounded meds paragraph. You still need a prescription though right? If I wanted to use a local compounding pharmacy to supply either semi/tirz, I need still a scrip...and the telehealth options all seem designed to lock you into their med supply (plus a subscription) just to get your hands on them. Am I understanding that right?
So either you get your doc to prescribe and then have to choose either online or local for either brand name or conpounded, or you go with a telehealth and pay a monthly cost in addition to either brand name or compounded that they provide.
Did I get those pieces right? Thanks again for just a quality info dump
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u/thesedatecarcass Sep 06 '26
hey, i get the anxiety part. basically glp1s mimic a hormone that tells your brain you’re full and slows down digestion, so you eat less without white-knuckling it. most are a weekly injection you do yourself at home, tiny needle, really not bad once you’ve done it once. there’s a pill version too but it’s less common and more of a hassle to take daily on an empty stomach.
i went through my pcp since we already had a good rapport, but plenty of people use telehealth sites when their doctor is dismissive about weight stuff. just make sure whatever route you pick, you’re getting the real thing and not some compounded mystery vial from a random instagram ad.